Verse 28 is before verses 29 and 30

One great tragedy in the church today is biblical illiteracy.  Among Baptists, we believe the Bible, but we often don’t know it.  An unfortunate feature of the King James Version is that each verse is set apart of a separate paragraph.  It makes the Bible look like a book of disconnected sayings and phrases.  We often treat it as such.  When life gets hard, we turn to a verse or two we have memorized and expect comfort from it.  The truth is the Bible is a book where God reveals Himself to us.  It contains several genres of writing.  The Letter is one of those genres.  No one writes a letter with disconnected thoughts and sentences.

There is a verse that most Christians know, it is Romans 8:28.  We quote to our friends when tragedy strikes, we quote it to ourselves in those times as well.  It is a good verse.  No, it is a great verse.  But it’s greatness is seen in light of verse 29 and 30.

(28) We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.  (29) For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. (30) And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified. (HCSB)

Verses 29 and 30 tell us why we can rest at peace that God will work all things together for good.  Because God has an overarching plan for believers.  It is a 5-fold plan.  The believer is foreknown (God knew who would put faith in Christ), the believer is predestined to be made into the image of Christ (this is our growth as believers.  God working in our lives to make us like His Son), the believer is called (we cannot come to Christ apart form being called to Him), the believer is justified (God declares the believer “not guilty” because of his faith in Jesus), and the believer is glorified (he will one day be perfected in Heaven with the Father and Son).  This is God’s plan.  Because of this plan, we can be at peace knowing He works all things together for good.

It goes one step further.  All five parts of this master-plan are in the past tense in our English Bibles.  When Paul wrote this, he used the Aorist Tense.  This means it denotes a completed action.  Here’s the dilemma…how is it a completed action that we have been glorified while we are still here on earth?  Simple.  In the mind of God, it is as good as done!  You can count on it, you can live your life believing it without reservation!  In fact, it is also a completed action that we have been made into the image of Jesus.  So know that our trials and struggles are being used by God to make us more like His Son.  This is a task He will spend the rest of our lives working out for us to see.  We’ll see it unfold as He has already seen it happen!

A Day of Good News

I am having technical troubles uploading my sermon from Sunday, but something I shared from 2 Kings 7 has stuck with me for a while now.  This is when the lepers were outside of Samaria during the seige.  The conditions in the city were so bad, the people were paying a year’s salary for a donkey’s head, a month’s salary for dove droppings, and they were boiling their own children to eat!  These lepers knew no one would help them.  Their only option for survival was to go to the Aramean Camp and maybe they could live.  Through God’s miracle, the Arameans had fled their camp and left the gold, silver, clothing, and food.  The lepers had hit the jackpot.  They began to hide the items for later use, then one of them said, “What we’re doing is not right.  Today is a day of good news.  If we are silent and wait until the morning light, we will be punished.  Let’s go tell the King’s Household.” (2 Kings 7:9)

In the sermon, I related the sharing of the good news to sharing the gospel.  That is certainly a lesson from this passage.  Another lesson is about our equality with our brothers.  For whatever reason the Lord let the Lepers hit the jackpot.  They could not keep it for themselves.  They knew they had a responsibility to share it or the Lord would punish them.  If we look at how the Lord has blessed us as Americans, for whatever reason, we have hit the jackpot.  Could it be that He wants us to share it with our brothers and sisters in the Lord in other places?  Places like Ethiopia.  Places where Jesus loves the people as much as He loves us.  Places where they are desperate for the basic needs of life that we take for granted.

May we as His people be obedient not only to share the good news of salvation, but also the goods that He has blessed us with.

From John the Baptist to Jesus

For the past week I have had this thought in my mind, “have you moved from John the Baptist to Jesus?”  In John 1, we see JTB preaching and baptizing people for repentance of sins.  He is telling them to repent and get their hearts ready for the Messiah.  They were baptized to symbolize their new focus in life…to live better lives in preparation for the Messiah.  Later in John 1, after baptizing Jesus, JTB points out yet again, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”  Some of John’s followers begin following Jesus.

These men had spent months seeing people baptized and start living as better people.  Now, finally the Messiah shows up and John points his followers to Jesus.  It was time to let Jesus make them a new creation.  It would no longer be sufficient to try harder to be a better person.  Jesus had come and He has the power to MAKE you a better person.  JTB served a purpose, but it was time for the real thing.  In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.  Old things are passed away and new things have come.”  When you begin to follow Jesus, He makes you new!  It is not a mater of trying harder to be a better person and do more good works.  Jesus makes you a better person.  The works follow as Jesus changes you from the inside out.

In our culture today, there are many who “get religious.”  They start to live better and do better.  They try hard to break old habits and form better ones.  The trouble is they can only do it in their strength.  They are not a new creation.  They are “following John the Baptist”.  It is time to move from trying to do good things in your life, and move to Jesus.  Let Him MAKE you a new creation!

A good funeral

A good funeral is not one where the songs are sung properly and the directors do everything without a hitch.  No, a good funeral is one where you can celebrate the life of the departed and give glory to Christ in the process.  I just participated in one today.  I only knew the deceased for the last 4 years of her life.  I wish I had known her during the previous 89.  She had been sick much these past four years, but she still served Jesus.  It was a good funeral hearing her children speak of her impact on their lives.  They are serving the Lord and loving people just as their mother had modeled for them.

I once saw a bumper sticker that said something like, “live your life in such a way that the preacher doesn’t have to lie at your funeral!”  This sweet lady lived that way.  It was a real testimony of her love for Christ today.  She prayed for the lost across the street and across the world.  She gave sacrificially so that others could take the gospel around the world.  I wonder how many people she met Monday night who could thank her for her prayers and gifts!

We all have an impact on others.  More than we know.  I pray that impact is positive, and points them to Jesus.